Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1887-03-27
SRI LORE.
hi LUkB.
A Floating Prison-Niee DIS
tineti0H Of Terms.
The LoplollV Man-The Ladv's
Psntry-LaJing AlOft.
Strakes and streaks-Piddles that work
with strsps-Hard Tack and SON
Talk BaFying the Dead
H0rse-Ete.

NA&IAAa EOA 4HA OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES I
Not excepting the profession of the
Ian. there il no calling which hiss Q |
greater wealth Of technical dialect than |
that Of the sea. The vocabulary Of the |
ocean is crowded With strange words, |
aud there are such nice shades Of mean
ing which distinguish their uses that
landsmAn must often Be perPlexed at
hos to arrive at any intelligent under
standing Of them. TIE sage Of FIsst
street 10 never more entertaining than
when be 10 trying TO define some part Of
q vessels gear. At home With pretty
well all other subjects in the weird, Dr..
johnson vas sisRularly unhappy in bis
treatment Of matters marine, az q
glance AZ some OF the definitions in his
dictionary will show. His description
Of ship a.
FLOATING PRISON"
Is, Of course, fgurative. bsgstten by his
dislike Of the sea and everything CON
nsessd with it. His dictionary, how
ever, is full Of ludieroas errers. perps-
tFated in ell seriousness in his attempts
70 fathom the mystery Of a ships
equipment. The Doctor confounds
"tiIlsr" With "rudder'' over, and over
again; describes the keel" IS the ''bot-
tom" Of a ship, and apparently thinks
hat Delay" and "splics" are convert
IDLE terms This ignorance on the Iexi-
cographei's part 10 inexeusable for tie
reason that sea terms have such nicely
Of application that rooca for confusion
Of them should be impossible. No pro
fsssion in the world has words to ex-
press such delicate shades Of meaning
a. the sea. Take the words aft" and
'abaft" as examples. These are both
adverbs of place. and both mean ell
most the same thing. yet there 10 no
single occasion where either OF them
may be used with equal ptopFiety. The
former mea' Q behind" in a general
sense, bat the latter means behind in q
relative sense aRd cen orIy be used in
connection With some object, rs abaft
the foremost, abaft the binnacle, etc.
People would naturally think that the
same word would be used to describe
anything which came over or through q
vessels bulwarks, whether that thing
was animate or inauimate. Nothing of
the sort. There are two words TO use
on occasions Of this sort, to confound
which 10 a
HKREsY OF TIKI DBADLIEsT KIND.
A boat is said to be swung from thu
davits over the b1lvarks "inboard, !"
bat a man entering 9 ship has gone
aboard" Seas break ''inboard," bat
q mArines-the latter come aboard. -
Anecdotes Of DR.. johnson are irresisti-
bic, and here is one which is not 80 fire.
queBtlv quoted as most. On one coca
sion the doctor was invited to spend q
week on board a war-ship lying IN Ply
mouth Roads. Rendered exclusive By
enforced idleness, he ives tempted int
rambling about the ship. aud coming TO
particularly dark and mysterious
closet, had bis curiosity vhetted TO ask
. sailor its uses. That" replied the
tar, sis the place where the
LoPLoLLYMAS KEEPS his LoPLoLLY,"
An answer which so Disconnected the
Doctor, that he packed mp his trunks
and vent ashore the same hour. If the
strange words he hears at sea are puz-
cling to q landsman. then doubly 30 are
familiar words which on a ship bave a
significance quite different to their
shore one. What is the unsophisticAted
to make of eats" Of "liz ,rds." of
"fsxes," or Of "leeches?'' Then the use
OF the verbs to mouse" to "bowse' and
to ''rouse" are equally mysterious. The
word "lady" at sea is obsolete now, bat
formerly ID designated a funetionary
whose business IL was to leok after the
gamers small stores, and the place
where the latter we're kept was called the
''lady's pantry" The sea is very con-
sentative in its usages, and some Of the
terms We have quoted above we're
familiar 20 mariu re in the time of
Columbus. Now and then a word sinks
into "desuetude," as President CIeve-
land would say. bat it takes centuries Of
disuse to really render the word obso-
lete. A good expressive sea term has
been lost in abandoning the verb ito
CLAW" which formerly meant
cLUTCHISG AND GRABBING At THE WIND,
In a ships efforts to get away from a
lee shore. Sails are not said to "shiver"
in the WiRd NOWADAYS; they shaker"
nor are stAysails "heaved out," but
''lOOsed and hoisted" in this nineteeHth
century. There has been q great deal
of controversy about the uss Of the
word "top0allAnt" and, as usual, the
sage of Bolt Court runs afoul OF ID
most egreaiously. TopgailAnt was
word used on shore long before il be
came the exclusive property of the sea.
Steele somewhere speaks OF the "topRal
laRt sparks Of the to9p," using the
werd With oon6denes which only "a
mlliariiy With II could give. According
to the author Of the Llves Of the Poets
"topgsllant" IL the top sail. Nov the
veriest tyFo Of the sea knows that top
gallant il never used as a substantive
bat invariably as al adjective, tue top
gallant yard, the topoaliant foFecastle.
furnishing examples. A man ReinQ to
bed az sea IL said to be stunning in. -
Men who sleep through the watches,
like the petty sfdcers. etc, are said 10
"have all night in," that IL IN their
hunks sr hammocks 'Idlers" is a De
onlisr word and means these exclusive
OF the officers, Who do not keep watches,
ike the carpenter, cook. butcher, etc.
The moeysylabie word lay" has MANY
meanings, none of them very quickly
caught bold OF By tie landsman. TO
lev .lof, is to 20 aIOft, bat for q body
Of men 10
"LAY" ALONG A YARD
Il 10 extend AloER yard. The word
"lAy" IL also used In connection With
ooiiin9 up . rope; thus, TO lay up a
rope-H
l, would occupy too much space to ad
doce instances where The spelling and
prgnauc citation OF sea terms IL widely
different. frequently, Of course. this
arises from the fact that Jack has GOT
little breath TO spare and wants 70 say
everything IS short as possible. Bat
Why t 10 easier to say "strop" than
strap. or 'strake" than streak IL net
aFpzrsnt. The word tackle il short and |
handy enoaRh in all conscience, but IN |
Jacks mOutn Il becomes "tAycie,n With
the accent on the first syllable.
DBI HASH AT SRA BECOMES "scousn. |
Au1 rrs7Afura - Err-,gtr -